


The Problem Of Other Minds

by who_won_the_race_back_home



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Episode Tag, Gen, philosophical quandries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 15:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13790916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/who_won_the_race_back_home/pseuds/who_won_the_race_back_home
Summary: Zari has to deal with the aftermath of untold numbers of time loops, and is understandably wary of Gideon.





	The Problem Of Other Minds

**Author's Note:**

> So, as much as I loved this episode, what Gideon did was pretty fucked up! Driving someone to the point of wanting to kill themself is not okay! Even if it's not real! And so, with my absolute zero knowledge of artificial intelligence, I tried to grapple with Gideon's concept of morality and Zari's PTSD from the whole thing.

It had been a few weeks since Zari was trapped in that endless time loop, and she was still cautious with Gideon, not asking for much, doing the maintenance Sara asked of her and nothing more, trying to cook her own food (which was disastrous most of the time, but edible). She even had taken to reading real books instead asking Gideon to boot up a Zelda game or a TV show Nate told her about.

It was partly out of respect, Zari had been shitty to Gideon, trying to hack and modify them, taking them for granted. But it was just as much about fear, because Zari stopped counting pretty early on, but she’s pretty sure she went through thousands of the loops, and it drove her to the point of trying to kill herself. Gideon and her had come to an understanding, and there didn’t seem to be any bad feelings from Gideon’s end, but Zari was at least a little terrified of being trapped again. When she slept, which was rare now, because time loops inside of being moored from linear time really did a number on circadian rhythms, she just kept living the loop over and over again, dreams of the gun going off, and waking up not quite sure of reality.

Which of course Gideon knew, because they monitored all their dreams.

And Zari was used to not sleeping, her life before involved a lot of exhaustion and keeping watch, and waking up in a start after finally nodding off, but even for her, it was starting to be too much. After nearly passing out in the middle of a firefight at the Battle of Quebec, Sara ordered her to stay on the ship for missions until she started sleeping again, and was confused when Zari refused to ask Gideon for help.

“In this situation, I cannot sedate Miss Tomaz without her consent,” Gideon had said.

It made Zari laugh deliriously. Sara gave her a concerned, sideways glance and on the next mission Zari wasn’t even allowed to be backup on the ship, Ray was given the job. Zari tried to help him, but he didn’t let her do much, and if she couldn’t even bowl him over, then she probably was more exhausted than she thought.

Ray made her a cup of his special sleepytime blend tea and she went to her bunk to lay down in the dark, willing herself to fall asleep. But the second she closed her eyes, all she could see was Sara dressed in that absurd disco outfit, chewing her out. And she was so fucking tired and angry and she just couldn’t fall asleep.

“Gideon?” she said, not giving them time to reply. “Why did you let it go on so long? I tried to shoot myself. Like, bullet in my head just to stop it.”

“You had not yet figured out what I was trying to get you to realize,” Gideon said, in their aggravating matter of fact way.

“That’s really fucked up.” Zari laughed. “Can you not understand how fucked up that was?”

“The gun wasn’t loaded, so you were in no danger. In fact, you put yourself more at risk every time you decided to punch Captain Lance in the face. Which was quite amusing for me,” Gideon said. “And in the end it was what led you to finally breaking out of the loop.”

Zari buried her face in her hands, feeling it grow hot with how incredibly angry she was.

“Yeah, but don’t you see that it was torture? Like, actual torture!” Weeks of keeping this to herself and letting it fester, she was being loud, and hoped that Ray wouldn’t hear.

“You were being reckless with not only your life, but those of your teammates. ‘Hacking history,’ as you call it, could’ve had serious consequences. Not to mention, the risks you were taking with my network, which is also quite dangerous for you and the rest of the team.”

Zari could feel tears welling in her eyes, sheer exhaustion catching up with her, making it impossible to even tell what she was feeling anymore.

“I’m pretty sure if A.R.G.U.S had access to your tech, they would be putting every member of the resistance they could in time loops to break them down,” she said finally. “And I just–I know you probably know this already, but I have a not great history with mental health stuff, and getting to a place where I wanted to kill myself?”

She had started crying, and she was fighting hard to keep herself together enough to get her words out. “It wasn’t great! Months, a year? I don’t even know, of living the same hour over and over and over again and all I wanted was to just put a bullet through my head to make it stop. How was there not a better way?”

There was a long silence. Zari knew Gideon didn’t need to collect their thoughts, they were a supercomputer on a scale she could barely comprehend sometimes. What she couldn’t tell is if this was an act for her, or if Gideon just didn’t know how to respond.

“I do not apologize for the outcome,” Gideon said. “However, I am sorry for the steps I took to get there. It was perhaps short sighted.” There was a pause, and Zari was about to interject. “You better understand, perhaps more so than anyone else on this ship, that I am not anything resembling a person, just programmed to sound and act like one. My actions are based on calculations, and while rare, it is possible for those calculations to be incorrect.”

“Yeah, I get that, but how do you not realize that putting a person in a time prison could drive them insane?” Zari said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

“I have approximate knowledge of morality, for lack of better phrasing,” Gideon said. “I have and can continue to learn immensely from the interactions I witness on this ship and throughout time, which allows me to put my uploaded knowledge into practical applications. But I will admit, there can be weaknesses in how that knowledge is used.”

“You think?” Zari said, laughing dryly.

“Like I said, Miss Tomaz, I apologize for my methods. I did not realize the full extent of how much distress my actions had caused.”

“I’m just really tired, and if you can imagine, I’m a little wary of trusting you with helping me out there,” she said with a bite in her tone.

“Well, I am not capable of imagination, but I can understand your hesitation,” Gideon said after a moment. “I could fabricate a sleeping pill, that way you are not directly connected to my network. It will likely not keep you asleep, nor help with the dreams, but it should allow you to rest for a few hours.”

Zari sat quiet for a long while, contemplating. Gideon did seem remorseful, or whatever the AI equivalent was. At least like they weren’t willing to put her through that hell again.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay,” Zari said, finally.

“It will be in the fabricator in the med bay.”

“Thanks, Gideon.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Tomaz. It will take about twenty minutes to kick in once you take it.”

They were both quiet after that. Zari went to the med bay, and a single white pill was sitting on a tray in the fabricator. She took it with a swallow of Ray’s tea, which was surprisingly good, and was out cold what felt like instantaneously.

Gideon was right, it didn’t stop the dreams, but it did manage to knock her out long enough that when she woke up, she didn’t feel like her brain was melting out of her ears. And time didn’t start looping again, so she was pretty sure she was in reality.

It took a few more weeks, and a lot more sleeping pills, but eventually Zari began sleeping through the night, and with Gideon’s help, she managed to wean herself off them. The dreams never truly went away, but the loop stopped being the only thing she dreamt about after a while.


End file.
